Using a drip torch, a woman bends to carefully ignite a line of slow-burning embers. Charring away at greenery, the smolders catch along the edge of a stretch of forest in northern Tallahassee.
The air is heavy with smoke, but the women seem unfazed, wearing helmets and smocks, thick yellow jackets and green pants.
This week and through the end of March, about 45 women fire workers gather in the outskirts of the capital city to carry out prescribed burns and train in the forests of Tall Timbers, a fire ecology research lab.
Prescribed burning, a conservation method, is a male-dominated line of work. Women make up only about 12 percent of permanent firefighting positions, according to the International Association of Wildland Fire.